Type of Work

William Shakespeare's Henry
V is a history play centering on the
heroic deeds of England's King Henry V
(1386-1422). A history play, which is sometimes
referred to as a chronicle play, focuses on real
characters and events of the past. However, it
fabricates conversations and may introduce
fictionalized episodes, characters, or events.

Composition and Publication Dates

Shakespeare
wrote Henry V between 1598 and 1599. It was first
printed in 1600 in an unauthorized, error-ridden
edition that omitted parts of the play. In 1623, a
corrected edition of Henry V was published in a book
that included thirty-five other Shakespeare plays.
The 1600 version of Henry V was printed on smaller
pages than the 1623 version. The smaller pages were
called quartos; the larger were called folios. The
1623 folio book was the first authorized collection
of Shakespeare's plays. It came to be known as the
First Folio after other folio editions were
published in 1632, 1663, and 1685.

First
Performance

The
first performance of Henry V took place in
1599 at the Curtain Theatre in the Shoreditch
section of London. In the prologue of the play, the
chorus refers directly to the Curtain, asking "Can
this cockpit [theatre] hold the vasty fields of
France?"(1.Prologue.12). In other words, can the
small stage of the Curtain adequately present events
that took place on vast battlefields? The chorus
then asks, "Or may we cram / Within this wooden O
the very casques / That did affright the air at
Agincourt?" (1.Prologue.13-15). Wooden O
refers to the circular theatre.Shakespeare was
preparing his audience to use their imaginations to
pretend that a great battle is to take place on the
stage of the Curtain. Twenty-first century
audiences—accustomed to dazzling audio and visual
effects in films—may balk at having to imagine the
fireworks of battle. However, there is something to
be said for this approach. It allows theatregoers to
experience the scenes as their mind’s eye sees them.
It allows them to create the costumes, the weapons,
the charging horses, the smoke of battle. Children
create their own scenes when listening to a parent
reading a fairytale. They hang on every word and
every pause. And when the hero wields his sword,
they see in it the gleam of the sun and hear in it
the ring of triumph.

Sources

Shakespeare based the play on
information in Volume 3 of The Chronicles of
England, Scotland and Ireland (Holinshed's
Chronicles), by Raphael Holinshed
(1529-1580), and The Union of the Two Noble
and Illustre Families of Lancastre and York,
by Edward Hall (1497-1547). He may also have
consulted (1) an anonymous play entitled The
Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth,
published in 1598, and (2) The Civil Wars,
by Samuel Daniel (1562-1619).

Settings

The action takes place in
England and France between 1415 and 1420. The
specific locales are (1) the palace of the king
in London; (2) a street before a tavern in
London; (3) the port city of Southampton,
England; (4) the king's palace in France; (5)
the French city of Harfleur; (6) the English
camp at Picardy, France; (7) and the battlefield
at Agincourt, France, where Henry defeated the
French on October 25, 1415.

Tone

The overall tone of the play is
patriotic. Rousing battlefield rhetoric on the
part of King Henry supports the tone, as do
reports of valor on the battlefield.

Historical
Background

When Henry V
debuted in London in 1599, Shakespeare assumed that his
audience was aware of key historical events that took
place before the action depicted in the play. Here is a
summary of those events:

After King Henry IV died, the crown passed on March 21,
1413, to his son Henry, the Prince of Wales, who proved
his mettle in battle during a war against rebels from
Wales and Scotland. Although civil discord continued to
fester in Britain, the new king shifted his attention to
France. Because he believed the French may have usurped
lands and titles from his ancestors, Henry began
considering invading France and seizing the throne.
Defeating the French would not only win back lost lands,
but it would also win back the hearts and minds of the
rebellious forces at home, uniting them under Henry's
flag. But young King Henry's conscience demanded that he
seek counsel to affirm or deny the justness of his
claims against France.

After receiving opinions justifying his claims, he
attacked France and conducted a campaign that today is
considered part of the Hundred Years' War, a series of
conflicts between England and France, beginning in 1337
and ending in 1453. In Henry V, the most important
encounter is the Battle of Agincourt, in which the
English won a decisive victory. A treaty after the war
made Henry heir to the French throne. Following are
details on the battle of Agincourt.

When: October 25, 1415Where: Field between two forests near the village
of Agincourt, France. The town is now known as
Azincourt.Combatants: About 6,000 Englishmen under the
command of King Henry V and 20,000 to 30,000 Frenchmen
under the command of Charles d’Albret, Constable of
France (whom Shakespeare refers to as Charles
Delabreth).Weather: Rain, heavy at times, which muddied the
battlefield.Reason for the Battle: Disputed claims to French
lands and the French crown. The battle was part of the
Hundred Years’ War, a series of engagements fought
between 1337 and 1453.Outcome: English victory. However, it did not end
the war.Deciding Factors: (1) Inability of the French to
maneuver. The heavily armed French cavalry and foot
soldiers bogged down in the mud of the narrow field. (2)
Crack English archers, who rained arrows on the
struggling French. (3) The leadership of Henry V..

Characters

Henry V:
King of England and great warrior who rallies
his troops with patriotic appeals. He is the
protagonist, or main character. Shakespeare
introduced Henry, a member of the House of
Lancaster, to his readers as Prince Henry
(also known as Prince Hal and simply Harry)
in Henry IV Part I and Henry IV
Part II. Now in his
twenties, Henry has abandoned the folly of his
teenage years, when he caroused and womanized,
in favor of concentrating all his energies on
being a wise warrior king. He refuses to
associate with his old drinking friends from the
slums of London in order to preserve the dignity
of his office as king. However, he exhibits
great sympathy for his beleaguered troops,
whether noblemen or commoners, in his struggle
to defeat a larger French army at the Battle of
Agincourt in 1415. There, he exhibits courage
tempered with prudence and good judgment, as
well as all of the other leadership qualities
required of a king and leader of armies.
Shakespeare may have concentrated too much
attention on Henry V as a heroic warrior and not
enough attention on Henry V as a man. Unlike
Hamlet, Richard III, King Lear, and Othello,
Henry V is almost one-dimensional. His psyche
remains ensconced in his gray matter,
unexamined. On the other hand, Shakespeare's
depiction of Henry as a nearly flawless
superhuman established the young king as a model
for monarchs and statesmen of later generations.
The spirit of his fiery, never-say-die
patriotism and echoes of his rousing rhetoric
have rallied the British in times of crisis down
through the ages. In his Second World War
speeches, Winston Churchill, an admirer of
Henry, paraphrased Shakespeare's depiction of
him. Americans have been among Henry's admirers,
too, including Presidents Woodrow Wilson and
John F. Kennedy. Gloucester (Humphrey of
Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester): King's
brother.Bedford
(John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford):
King's brotherClarence (Thomas of Lancaster, 1st
Duke of Clarence): King's brother.Exeter (Thomas Beaufort,
1st Duke of Exeter): King's uncle.
He arrests three traitors (Lord Scroop, Sir
Thomas Grey, and Cambridge) plotting to
assassinate the king.York
(Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York):
King's cousin. Henry grants his request to
lead the vanguard of troops at the Battle of
Agincourt. He dies at Agincourt.Suffolk (Michael de la Pole, 3rd Earl
of Suffolk): Nobleman who dies honorably at
Agincourt.Salisbury
(Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury): One
of the noblemen who tried the 3rd Earl of
Cambridge for conspiracy to assassinate King
Henry.Westmoreland (Ralph Neville, 1st Earl
of Westmoreland): One of the noblemen who urge
Henry to go to war against France.Warwick (Thomas Beauchamp,
13th Earl of Warwick): Warrior who fought
against rebels at home before going to France
to fight valiantly in Henry's war.Huntingdon (John Holland): Cousin of
Henry V and participant in the Battle of
Agincourt. Archbishop of Canterbury (Henry
Chichele): Clergyman who
advises the king about his right to invade
France and claim the crown.
Bishop of Ely (John Fordham):
Clergyman who joins the archbishop in advising
the king about his right to invade France and
claim the crown. Lord Scroop (Henry Scrope,
3rd Baron Scrope of Masham): One of three
conspirators in a plot to assassinate King
Henry.Sir Thomas Grey: The second of three
conspirators in a plot to assassinate King
Henry.
Cambridge (Richard of
Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge): Third of
three conspirators in a plot to assassinate
King Henry.Captain
Fluellen: Welsh officer who is a
courageous and loyal leader and prides himself
on his knowledge of the history of warfare. He
is also a comic figure who speaks with a heavy
Welsh accent.Captain Gower: English
officer.Captain Macmorris: Irish officer.Captain Jamy: Scottish
officer. Like Fluellen, Jamy is knowledgeable
in the history of warfare.Sir
Thomas Erpingham: Knight who leads the
archers at the Battle of Agincourt.John Bates, Alexander Court,
Michael Williams: Soldiers in
the king's army.Sir John Falstaff
(Offstage Character): Fictional
character who was a bosom pal and drinking
companion of Henry when the latter was the
youthful heir to the throne (Henry IV
Part I and Henry IV Part II).
Falstaff is not listed in
Shakespeare's original character list for
Henry V because he has no
lines and does not appear on the stage. However,
Pistol reports his death from
an illness (2.3.6). In Act 4,
Scene 7, Fluellen and Gower
make a brief reference to
Falstaff. In Henry IV Part
II, Prince Henry ends
his friendship with Falstaff
before being crowned Henry V
in order to maintain his
dignity as king. Falstaff,
crestfallen and brokenhearted,
begins to decline in health.
His death in Henry V
symbolizes the new king's
final rejection of his former
lifestyle as a carousing
mischief-maker. The death of the fictional Falstaff
in Henry V was
mourned by no less a personage than Queen
Elizabeth I. His shenanigans in the Henry
IV plays were highly
entertaining to the great monarch. Consequently,
Shakespeare resurrected Falstaff to star in The
Merry Wives of Windsor.Pistol,
Nym, Bardolph: Fictional
characters who appeared in Henry IV Part
I and Henry IV Part II. In
those plays, they were drinking companions
of Falstaff and Henry. In Henry V,
they are soldiers hoping to practice their
trade, thievery, in France. Bardolph is
hanged for stealing a
sacred object from a
church. Pistol
helps to verify the king's good qualities
for the audience and readers when he says,

The king's
a bawcock [fine fellow], and a heart of
gold, A lad of
life, an imp of fame;Of parents
good, of fist most valiant.I kiss his
dirty shoe, and from heart-stringI love the
lovely bully. (4.1.49-53)

Boy:
Friend of Pistol, Nym and Bardolph and onetime
page of Falstaff. Unlike Henry V, Boy exhibits a
very human quality: fear. On the battlefield at
Agincourt, he says, ''Would I were in an
alehouse in London! I would give all my fame for
a pot of ale and safety'' (3.2.6).Hostess:
Pistol's
wife. She is a hostess at the Boar's Head
Tavern in London. In Henry
IV Part I and Henry IV
Part II, in which she was
unmarried, she was known as Mistress
Quickly.Chorus:
The chorus (one person) recites the famous
prologue before Act 1. The prologue asks the
audience to imagine that the stage of the
Curtain Theatre presents a view of the
historical places mentioned in the play,
including the battlefields of France. The chorus
actor also introduces the other acts of the play
and presents a conclusion at the end of the
play.Charles VI: King
of France.Isabel: Queen of
France.Katharine:
Daughter of the French king and queen. After
Henry defeats the French, he proposes to
Katherine.Alice: Attendant
of Katharine.Dauphin (Lewis, or Louis,
Duke of Guyenne): Conceited
son of the King of France.Duke of Orléans (Charles):
Overconfident nobleman in the French army. He
says of Henry, "What a wretched
and peevish fellow is this King of England, to
mope with his fatbrained followers so far out of
his knowledge!" (3.7.69). Duke of Bourbon: (Jean de Bourbon):
Nobleman who urges his fellow soldiers to return
to the field of battle at Agincourt after the
English gain the upper hands. He says,

Shame, and
eternal shame, nothing but
shame! Let’s die in
honour! once more back again [to the
battle]; And he that
will not follow Bourbon now,
Let him go
hence, and with his cap in
hand, Like a base
pander [panderer], hold the
chamber-door Whilst by a
slave, no gentler than my
dog, His fairest
daughter is contaminated. (4.5.13-19)

Duke of
Berri (John of Berri; also spelled Berry):
French nobleman.Duke of Britaine: French nobleman. Duke of Burgundy (John the Fearless):
French nobleman who helps conduct negotiations
with Henry V. Constable of France (Charles
d’Albret,
High Constable of France): Commander of the
French army. The King of France refers to him as
Delabreth
instead of d'Albret.Lord Rambures (David de
Rambures): French knight and master archer. Lord Grandpré:
Nobleman in the French army.Governor of HarfleurMontjoy: French
herald. Monsieur Le Fer: French soldier who begs
for his life on the battlefield.Ambassadors From the Dauphin to
the King of EnglandMinor Characters:
Lords, ladies, officers, soldiers, citizens,
messengers, and attendants.

Plot Summary

Prologue

An actor in the role of a chorus appears on the stage.
(In ancient Greek drama, a chorus commented on and
helped interpret the action in a play.) He asks the
audience to imagine that the play takes place, in part,
on a battlefield between two great countries divided by
an ocean. The stage of the theater, he says, is the
world. “Think,” he says, “when we talk of horses, that
you see them / Printing their proud hoofs i’ the
receiving earth” (1.Prologue.27-28). The chorus actor
further says that events of many years will be condensed
“into an hour-glass” (1.Prologue.27-28). In other words,
Shakespeare will mold history to the confines of his
play. For example, in the sixth scene of Act 2, Henry
arrives in France. The year is 1415. In the second scene
of Act 5, Henry is betrothed to the king’s daughter,
Katherine. The year is 1420.

The Story

The Archbishop
of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely are disturbed that
England is considering a law that would appropriate
large amounts of church money to meet expenses of the
Crown, including the cost of military enterprises and
welfare for the poor. So they devise a plan to sabotage
the proposal: They will offer the king a handsome
sum—greater than any that the clergy provided to his
kingly predecessors—to help him finance foreign military
adventures. During the discussion, the bishops express
relief that the young king, who had a reputation as a
carousing wastrel when he was a prince, has turned out
well. Ely observes:

The
strawberry grows underneath the nettle And
wholesome berries thrive and ripen best Neighbour’d
by fruit of baser quality: And
so the prince obscured his contemplation Under
the veil of wildness; which, no doubt, Grew
like the summer grass, fastest by night, Unseen,
yet crescive in his faculty. (1.1.64-70)

Later the
bishops receive an unsolicited opportunity to ingratiate
themselves with the king when he summons them to advise
him on whether it would be legally and morally correct
to attack France. He believes he has a right to the
French throne on grounds that the French usurped lands
and titles from his ancestors. So he asks the Archbishop
of Canterbury for his opinion, telling him "That what
you speak is your conscience wash’d / As pure as sin
with baptism” (1.2.36-37).

The archbishop then rains a torrent of legalisms upon
the king’s ear, including a reference to an old law
instituted by a legendary Frankish king, Pharamond, who
died in 426. Written in Latin, this law says, “In terram
Salicam mulieres ne succedent” (1.2.43), meaning “No
woman shall succeed in Salique land.” During his
presentation, the archbishop explains how the French are
interpreting this statute—referred to as the Salique
Law—unfairly and hypocritically to prevent Henry from
claiming what is rightfully his, the French crown. The
explanation is complicated and almost impossible to
understand when presented in the rapid-fire dialogue of
a stage presentation. (A
plain-English explanation of the Salique law appears
below.)

Bishop Ely, the Duke of Exeter, and the Earl of
Westmoreland add their voices to the archbishop’s,
urging Henry to claim his inheritance and go to war. The
archbishop then says that the clergy “will raise your
highness such a mighty sum / As never did the clergy at
one time. . .” (1.2.138-139).

Henry now seems ready to throw down the gauntlet and
declare war. However, on the advice of the archbishop,
Henry decides that it would be wise to leave a
substantial army behind in England to keep the
rebellious Scots in check.

Henry then receives the ambassador of the French
dauphin—Lewis (the historical Louis), the son and heir
of Charles VI, King of France. The dauphin’s ambassador
tells Henry that the dauphin regards Henry’s claim on
French lands as laughable, although the ambassador
presents a gift from the dauphin—a chest supposedly
containing a treasure. The ambassador says the treasure
is Henry’s if he will abandon all claims on France.
Exeter opens the chest and finds tennis balls. They are
intended as an insult, suggesting that young Henry is
fit only to play games, not to rule a kingdom. But Henry
surprises the ambassador with a bellicose reply:

When
we have march’d our rackets to these balls, We
will, in France, by God’s grace, play a set Shall
strike his father’s crown into the hazard.Tell
him he hath made a match with such a wrangler That
all the courts of France will be disturb’dWith
chaces. (1.2.270-275)

Henry further
says that the tennis balls will become “gun-stones”
(1.2.291) and that invading English armies will leave in
their wake thousands of widows, sonless mothers, and
ruined castles. For generations to come, the French will
regret the dauphin’s tennis-ball jest.

In the ensuing days, all England rises up to back Henry,
and strong-armed young men eagerly join his cause.
Armorers thrive. Farmers sell pastures to buy horses.
Warriors sharpen sword and axe.

Meanwhile, outside the Boar’s Head Tavern in the
Eastcheap section of London, Bardolph, Nym, and
Pistol—drinking companions of Henry in the days when he
was a hell-raising teenage prince—discuss with the
tavern’s hostess news of the death of Sir John Falstaff,
Henry’s boon companion during those old days.
Apparently, Falstaff died a broken man. Henry’s
rejection of him and his degenerate lifestyle—along with
what may have been a bout of malaria, as his feverish
symptoms suggest—have
been too much for old Sir John. The hostess (who was
Mistress Quickly in the Henry IV plays and is
now Pistol’s wife) says Falstaff died well. “I saw him
fumble with the sheets and play with flowers and smile
upon his fingers’ ends,” after which he “babbled” and
“cried out ‘God! God! God!” (2.3.9). Wine and women were
Falstaff’s ruination.

Boy, another of Falstaff’s companions, notes that the
old knight once said the devil would get him because of
his womanizing. Boy then says, “Do you not remember, a’
[he] saw a flea stick upon Bardolph’s nose, and a’ said
it was a black soul burning in hell-fire?” (2.3.18).

After Henry arrives in southern England at the port city
of Southampton, he prepares to set sail for France.
Three envoys who had been sent earlier to France on the
king’s business are brought before him. It seems that
these men accepted a French bribe to assassinate Henry.
Now every inch a king—a king of justice swift and
final—Henry orders their execution, then casts off for
France and glory. At the city of Harfleur in September
of 1415, Henry and his forces encounter stiff resistance
after breaking through the city walls. When the English
army is thrown back by the doughty French defenders,
King Henry heartens his forces with a patriotic rallying
cry.

Among the English forces are those rapscallions from the
Boar’s Head Tavern in London. They are less than
stalwart when it comes to blood and battlefields. Boy
says, “Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would
give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety” (3.2.6).

After King Henry rallies his troops, they redouble their
efforts, and Harfleur is theirs. It is heartening that
Scots, Welshmen, and Irishmen all have fought bravely,
signaling that England is united under Henry’s
leadership. Winter arrives. The English are tired,
hungry, and weak of spirit after long marches through
France. At night, as the French mass their troops, Henry
walks about the camp in disguise to assess the mood of
his troops and, if necessary, fire them with resolve.

When dawn breaks, a gloomy English soldier predicts the
troops will not live to the end of the day. The
disguised Henry tells him, “Methinks I could not die any
where so contented as in the king’s company; his cause
being just and his quarrel honourable” (4.1.91). The
French, meanwhile, brag that they will snap the English
spine with a massive army of princes and nobles arrayed
in glittering armor. When the time for battle finally
arrives, five French soldiers stand for battle for every
English soldier. Even their restless, neighing horses
seem eager for battle. The Dauphin shouts, “Mount them,
and make incision in their hides, / That their hot blood
may spin in English eyes” (4.2.9-10). The Constable of
France, the leader of the French army, tells his
officers:

To
horse, you gallant princes! straight to horse! Do
but behold yon poor and starved band, And
your fair show shall suck away their souls, Leaving
them but the shales and husks of men. (4.2.19-21)

On October 25,
1415, prospects for victory appear bleak for the
English. Nevertheless, the redoubtable King Henry stokes
new fire into the belly of his men. The king tells them,

This
day is called the feast of Crispian:He
that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will
stand a tip-toe when the day is named, And
rouse him at the name of Crispian. He
that shall live this day, and see old age, Will
yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And
say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:Then
will he strip his sleeve and show his scars. And
say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’ (4.3.45-53)

Thanks to his
eagle-eyed archers and the fury of his foot soldiers, he
drenches the battlefield, Agincourt, in French blood and
wins the day. It is the turning point in the war against
France. Between 1415 and 1420, Henry wins further
battles (which are not depicted in the play) and
stabilizes France under English control. On May 21,
1420, he forges a peace treaty at Troyes, France, with
the French king, Charles VI. The treaty recognizes Henry
as heir to the French throne. Furthermore, it grants
Henry the hand of the King’s daughter, Katherine of
Valois, in marriage.

When Henry attempts to win Kate’s heart, he heaps
praises on her, and she responds sometimes in French and
sometimes in broken English. She asks, “Is it possible
dat I sould love de enemy of France?” (5.2.119).
Henry says:

No;
it is not possible you should love the enemy of
France, Kate; but, in loving me, you should love the
friend of France; for I love France so well that I
will not part with a village of it; I will have it all
mine: and, Kate, when France is mine and I am yours,
then yours is France and you are mine. (5.2.120)

Kate responds:
“I cannot tell vat is dat” (5.2.121). Henry tries
to explain in French, but he is little better in that
language than Kate is in English. After a time, he ends
up kissing her and complimenting her on her charm. King
Henry and King Charles then make wedding plans, and
Charles says,

Take her, fair son; and from her blood raise up Issue
[children] to me; that the contending kingdoms Of
France and England, whose very shores look pale With
envy of each other’s happiness, May
cease their hatred. (5.2.173-180)

Climax

The climax of a play or another
literary work, such as a short story or a novel,
can be defined as (1) the turning point at which
the conflict begins to resolve itself for better
or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting
event in a series of events. The climax in Henry
V, according to both definitions, is
Henry's rousing "St. Crispian's" speech
(4.3.45-72) before the decisive battle at
Agincourt and the victory that followed. The
conclusion, or denouement, centers mainly on the
treaty making Henry heir to the throne of France
and on Henry's meeting with his future wife,
Katherine, the daughter of the King of France.

Themes

PatriotismHenry
V unabashedly promotes love of England,
support of its welfare, and defense of its
claims against foreign powers. The Archbishop of
Canterbury, for example, couches his call for
war in patriotic rhetoric glorifying the
exploits of England's past military heroes. In
urging King Henry to wage war against France, he
says,

Go, my dread
lord, to your great-grandsire’s
tomb, . . . invoke
his war-like spirit, And your
great-uncle’s, Edward the Black
Prince,
Making
defeat on the full power of
France; Whiles his
most mighty father on a hill
Stood
smiling to behold his lion’s whelp [to behold
his son] Forage in
blood of French nobility.
O noble
English! that could entertain [could fight]
With half
their forces the full pride of
France, And let
another half stand laughing
by, All out of
work, and cold for action. (1.2.108-119)

In his plea
for war, Westmoreland reminds Henry of the
loyalty of his subjects, a loyalty so fierce
that their fighting spirit is already encamped
in France even though their bodies remain in
England awaiting a call to arms.

Never King
of England Had nobles
richer, and more loyal
subjects, Whose hearts
have left their bodies here in
England And lie
pavilion’d in the fields of France.
(1.2.131)

Once in
France, Henry rallies his troops with this
patriotic appeal: "Cry
'God for Harry, England and Saint
George!' " (3.1.36). Saint George is the
patron saint of England.

Although Henry's army includes English, Welsh,
Scottish, and Irish troops, he refers to all of
them as brothers united in a single cause.

We few, we
happy few, we band of
brothers;
For he
to-day that sheds his blood with
me Shall be my
brother; be he ne’er so vile [shall be my
brother, no matter how base he is] This day
shall gentle his condition: [This day shall
lift him up] And
gentlemen in England, now
a-bed Shall think
themselves accurs’d they were not
here,
And hold
their manhoods cheap whiles any
speaks That fought
with us upon Saint Crispin’s day. (4.3.65-72)

Stephen E.
Ambrose borrowed the phrase band of brothers
for the title of his 1993 World War II book. The
book was made into a television miniseries with
the same title.

The
Blossoming of a Leader
In Henry IV Part I and much of Henry
IV Part II, Shakespeare portrayed young
Prince Henry as an idler who hung out with bad
company in the London slums and drank his fill
of beer. Whether the historical Prince Henry was
in fact a wayward youth is debatable. The
Encyclopædia Britannica says there may be
a measure of truth in the negative portrayal of
him by Shakespeare, as well as other Elizabethan
authors. But the Britannica also says
that this depiction of young Henry may have been
overstated:

Whether one
believes that Henry was a hellion, a borderline
delinquent, or a young man wronged by gossip,
there can be no gainsaying that after he
inherited the throne of England at age
twenty-six he was a highly gifted king, ruling
with wisdom, caution, resolve, political savvy,
justice, and an understanding of his people.
Historians generally praise his character and
accomplishments. So does Shakespeare's Henry
V. Early in the play, the Archbishop of
Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely discuss the
remarkable changes in the young man.

CANTERBURY: The king is full of grace
and fair
regard.
ELY:
And a true lover of the holy
church.
CANTERBURY: The courses of his youth
promis’d it not. The breath
no sooner left his father’s body But that his
wildness, mortified in him, Seem’d to
die too; yea, at that very
moment,
Consideration like an angel came,
And whipp’d
the offending Adam [sinner; transgressor] out
of him, Leaving his
body as a paradise, To envelop
and contain celestial spirits [good thoughts;
righteous thinking]. Never was
such a sudden scholar
made;
Never came
reformation in a flood, With such a
heady currance [powerful wave], scouring
[wiping out] faults.” The bishops
then commend him for his knowledge of
theology, government, warfare, and “to any
cause of policy” (1.1.49).

Henry proves
himself just and decisive when he orders the
execution of three traitors before he debarks
from Southampton for war. Once in France, he
uses his powerful charisma and command of
language to stoke fire in his vastly outnumbered
and disease-ridden army. After defeating the
French at Agincourt, he displays his diplomatic
skill in forging a treaty acknowledging him as
heir to the French throne. At the end of the
play, he becomes a gentle wooer, suing for the
hand of the King's daughter.

Unity in Diversity

Captain Fluellen wears a leek on his cap as an
outward show of his pride in his native Wales.
(The leek, a plant in the onion family, is the
national emblem of Wales.) Yet he fights for
England, as do Scotsmen and Irishmen, as well as
Englishmen—noblemen and commoners. Henry had
united them under his rule by healing the wounds
of past civil war and strife. He turned old
enemies into friends, restored confiscated
lands, bolstered a languishing economy, cracked
down on bandits and other criminals, and—in a
bold move—freed the imprisoned Earl of March
(Edmund Mortimer). As the designated heir of
King Richard II, the earl lost the throne to
Henry IV, Henry V's father, and spent most of
his time in prison during the reign of the elder
Henry. But after Henry V released him, he became
a loyal subject of the young king and even
informed on the traitors plotting to assassinate
him.

Henry's measures instilled loyalty and devotion
into his subjects, qualities required for one of
his most important goals as king—the conquest of
France. Save for three traitors in his midst, he
had the backing of commoners and noblemen alike
in all the lands he ruled. As the chorus says at
the beginning of the second act:

Now all the
youth of England are on
fire, And silken
dalliance in the wardrobe lies; [And silken
. . . lies: And the fancy clothes they wear to
balls and parties hang in their closets] Now thrive
the armourers, and honour’s
thought Reigns
solely in the breast of every
man:
[Now . . .
every man: Now thrive the craftsmen who make
armor. Thoughts of answering the call to duty
and performing honorably on the battlefield
occupy every man's mind.] They sell
the pasture now to buy the
horse, Following
the mirror of all Christian
kings, With winged
heels, as English Mercuries.

Theocentrism

Henry and other characters frequently praise
God, appeal to him for protection and favors,
and credit him for their success. Their
acknowledgement of a ubiquitous, omnipotent
presence around them attests to the theocentrism
of society in Renaissance Europe. Following are
examples of references to God in the play.

Our purposes
God justly hath discover’d, And I repent
my fault more than my death; Which I
beseech your highness to forgive,
Although my
body pay the price of it. (Scroop,
2.2.-152-155) We doubt not
of a fair and lucky war, Since God so
graciously hath brought to light This
dangerous treason lurking in our way To hinder
our beginnings. We doubt not now But every
rub is smoothed on our way. Then forth,
dear countrymen: let us deliver Our
puissance into the hand of God. (Henry,
2.2.185-191) He [Henry]
wills you, in the name of God
Almighty,
That you
divest yourself, and lay apart The borrow’d
glories that by gift of heaven, By law of
nature and of nations ’long To him and
to his heirs; namely, the crown And all
wide-stretched honours that
pertain
By custom
and the ordinance of times Unto the
crown of France. (Exeter, 2.4.85-91} O God of
battles! steel my soldiers’
hearts; Possess them
not with fear; take from them now
The sense of
reckoning, if the opposed
numbers
Pluck their
hearts from them. Not to-day, O Lord! (Henry,
4.1.181-182) MONTJOY: The
day is yours. KING HENRY:
Praised be God, and not our strength [army],
for it! (4.7.51-52)

Humiliation

French ambassadors to the English court present
Henry a “tun of treasure” (1.2.263) from the
Dauphin. They say the treasure will be Henry's
if he gives up his claim to French lands. When
Henry's uncle, Exeter, opens the tun (a cask),
he finds only tennis balls. The Dauphin had sent
them to Henry to humiliate him. It was the
Dauphin's way of saying that young Henry should
occupy his time with games, not government,
because he was too immature to wear a crown and
rule a country.

But Henry responds by waging a war that
devastates the vaunted French army. The
crestfallen Dauphin says, “Reproach and
everlasting shame / Sits mocking in our plumes.”
Moments later, he cries, “Let's stab ourselves.”
The Duke of Bourbon says, “Shame and eternal
shame, nothing but shame!” The Duke of Bourbon
remarks, “Let life be short; else shame will be
too long.”.

..The Salique Law

The “Salique land” referred to
by the archbishop was in Germany and was
occupied by Franks, Germanic people who later
moved westward and established France. Under
the Salique law (also called Salic law), a
daughter could not inherit the property and
entitlements of her father. This proscription
applied to all women, including the daughter
of a king. Thus, despite her royal status, a
king’s daughter could not pass on lands and
entitlements of the king to her children; she
could not give them what she did not legally
possess. In 805, after Charles
the Great (Charlemagne) conquered the Saxons
(another Germanic people), many of his Franks
settled the so-called Salique (or Salic) land,
making it—in effect—part of France. One result
of this development was that the Salic law
supposedly became effective for all of France,
not just the Salic portion of it. Therefore, a
man descended from the ruling class on the
female side of the family was ineligible to
become king. Because Henry V is the
great-great-grandson of the daughter of a king
of France, the French argue, his claim on the
French throne is invalid. However, the bishop
points out, French kings over the centuries
acceded to the French throne even though their
claim to it was based on female ancestry.
Apparently, the Salic law did not apply to
France after all. It was a dusty, ancient
relic which could not be applied arbitrarily
in opposition to power politics and ambition.
But, the archbishop says, if the Salic law did
not apply to previous kings of France—if it
was, in fact, no longer in force—it should not
apply to Henry in 1413. To contend otherwise
was to say that France legitimized
illegitimate kings. Therefore, the archbishop
concludes, Henry has a right to attack France.
God will be on his side.

Format:
Verse and Prose

Shakespeare
wrote Henry V in verse and prose.

Verse consists of lines of limited length that
follow a rhythmic pattern. In Shakespeare, this
pattern is usually iambic pentameter, a rhythm
scheme in which each line usually has five pairs
of syllables. Each pair consists of an
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable. Shakespeare's verse contains no
rhyming lines, as does his poetry. (An explanation of
iambic-pentameter verse appears below.)

Prose is the language of everyday conversation,
letters, lectures, sermons, newspaper articles,
book chapters, and encyclopedia articles. Prose
has no rhyme or rhythm scheme. In a Shakespeare
play, the royal, noble, and upper-class
characters usually (but not always) speak in
verse; commoners generally speak in prose.

Here are examples of verse and prose passages
from Henry V.

Verse Passage

Awake
remembrance of these valiant
dead,
And with
your puissant arm renew their
feats: You are
their heir, you sit upon their
throne, The blood
and courage that renowned them Runs in your
veins; and my thrice-puissant
liege Is in the
very May-morn of his
youth,
Ripe for
exploits and mighty enterprises.
(1.2.120-126)

Prose
Passage

Nay, sure,
he’s not in hell: he’s in Arthur’s bosom, if
ever man went to Arthur’s bosom. A’ made
a finer end and went away an it had been any
christom child; a’ parted even just between
twelve and one, even at the turning o’ the
tide: for after I saw him fumble with the
sheets and play with flowers and smile upon
his fingers’ ends, I knew there was but one
way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and
a’ babbled of green fields. ‘How now, Sir
John!’ quoth I: ‘what man! be of good cheer.’
So a’ cried out ‘God, God, God!’ three or four
times: now I, to comfort him, bid him a’
should not think of God, I hoped there was no
need to trouble himself with any such thoughts
yet. So a’ bade me lay more clothes on his
feet: I put my hand into the bed and felt
them, and they were as cold as any stone; then
I felt to his knees, and so upward, and
upward, and all was as cold as any stone.

Notice that
the verse lines have limited lengths but that
the prose lines continue to the right margin,
then wrap. In a
verse passage, each line counts as a
separate line. Thus, the verse passage
above has seven lines.Each line in a verse
passage begins with a capital letter. A
prose passage counts as a single line, no matter
how many sentences, clauses, or phrases it
contains.

Meter: Iambic
Pentameter

In verse
passages, Shakespeare used a rhythm pattern
called iambic pentameter.

To understand iambic pentameter, you first need
to understand the term iamb (pronounced
EYE am). An iamb is a unit of rhythm consisting
of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable. Consider the words annoy, fulfill,
pretend, regard, and serene. They
are all iambs because the first syllable of each
word is unstressed (or unaccented) and the
second syllable is stressed (or accented): an
NOY, ful FILL, pre TEND, re GARD, and ser ENE.
Iambs can also consist of one word with a single
unstressed (unaccented) syllable followed by
another word with a single stressed (accented)
syllable (example: the KING). In addition, they
may consist of a final unstressed syllable of
one word followed by an initial stressed
syllable of the next word (example: SEVenYEARS a GO).

When a line has five iambs, it is in iambic
pentameter. In the word pentameter, the
prefix, pent-, means five. The suffix,
-meter, refers to the recurrence of a
rhythmic unit (also called a foot). The first
three lines under Verse
Passage (above) illustrate the iambic
pattern, as the following graphic demonstrates:

A WAKE re
MEM brance OF these VAL iant
DEAD,
And WITH
your PUIS sant ARM re NEW their
FEATS: You ARE
their HEIR, you SIT u PON their THRONE
(1.2.120-122)

Thus, because
the above lines contain iambs, they are iambic.
Because they contain five iambs (or five feet)
they are said to be in iambic pentameter. (A
line with five iambs, or five feet, contains ten
syllables, as in the lines immediately
above.) When the words at the end of each
line of iambic pentameter do not rhyme, the
lines are said to be in unrhymed iambic
pentameter. Another term for unrhymed iambic
pentameter is blank verse.

Occasionally, a line in iambic pentameter may
have nine syllables, or perhaps ten or eleven,
instead of the usual ten. The reason is that the
importance of conveying the right meaning
dictates veering from standard practice.

Famous Verse Passages

Henry V
is famous for two verse passages expressing the
patriotic rallying cries of Henry during
the heat of battle.
The first occurs at the beginning of Act 3 after
the English breach the walls of the city of
Harfleur but are thrown back in fierce fighting.
Undaunted, Henry says,

Once more
unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the
wall up with our English dead. In peace
there’s nothing so becomes a man As modest
stillness and humility: But when the
blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate
the action of the tiger; Stiffen the
sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise
fair nature with hard-favour’d rage; Then lend
the eye a terrible aspect; Let pry
through the portage of the head Like the
brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it As fearfully
as doth a galled rock O’erhang and
jutty his confounded base, Swill’d with
the wild and wasteful ocean. (3.1.3-15)

In this
passage—a rhetorical tour de force—Shakespeare
blends a mix of ingredients. One is
alliteration, the repetition of consonant
sounds. This figure of speech occurs in the
first two lines with the repetition of “w”
sounds at the beginning of words: once
more, once more, wall,
and with. Man in
the third line then mates with modest in
the fourth line. Shakespeare next gives us blast
of war blows;
stiffen the sinews,
fair nature with hard-favour’d,
pry the portage, and wild
and wasteful.

Shakespeare also uses stark contrasts, setting modest
stillness against the blast of war,
then fair nature against hard-favour’d
rage. He also sets off concrete images
with abstract ones—tiger and blood,
for example, set off by fair nature and
hard-favour’d rage. He follows with a
simile comparing the glare shooting from an eye
to a ball shooting from a brass cannon. A
metaphor then compares brow to a galled
(projecting) rock. All of these devices
enable Henry to deliver a rousing oration, one
that appeals to the emotions and inspires heroic
action.

The second rousing passage also appeals to the
emotions. In this passage, Henry tells his
troops on the day of the French-English showdown
(October 25, 1415, the feast day of two Roman
Catholic saints, Crispin and Crispian, who were
martyred in beheadings) that posterity will long
remember their deeds in the battle about to take
place. Henry says:

This day is
called the feast of Crispian: He that
outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a
tip-toe when the day is named, And rouse him
at the name of Crispian. He that shall
live this day, and see old age, Will yearly
on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say
‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian’: Then will he
strip his sleeve and show his scars. And say
‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’ Old men
forget: yet all shall be forgot,But he’ll
remember with advantages What feats
he did that day. Then shall our names, Familiar in
his mouth as household words, Harry the
king, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and
Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, Be in their
flowing cups freshly remember’d. This story
shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin
Crispian shall ne’er go by, From this
day to the ending of the world, But we in it
shall be remembered; We few, we
happy few, we band of brothers; For he
to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my
brother. . . . (4.3.45-68)

Language Variations

Henry
V contains prose passages mimicking the dialects
of English commoners as well as Welsh, Irish, and Scotch
soldiers. These passages lend the play an air of
historical authenticity while underscoring the theme of
unity in diversity. Examples of these are lines 2.1.3-45
(English commoners), 3.2.26 (Welsh), 3.2.30 (Irish), and
3.2.32 (Scotch).

The play also contains prose passages entirely or partly
in French. These passages also support historical
authenticity while sometimes providing comic relief. Whether Shakespeare spoke French
fluently is unknown, but he knew enough of the
language to write droll passages in which the
English and French misunderstand or mispronounce
words in each other’s language. For example, on
the field of battle, a French soldier named
Monsieur Le Fer—threatened
by Pistol—asks,
“Est-il impossible d’eschapper la force de ton
bras?” (Is it impossible to escape the force of
your arms?” (4.4.17.) Pistol, misunderstanding bras
(arms), replies, “Thou damned and luxurious
mountain goat / Offer’st me brass?” (4.4.19-20).

Figures of Speech

Following are examples of figures of
speech Shakespeare uses in Henry V.

Alliteration: Repetition of consonant sounds at
the beginning of words or syllables

Never was such a
sudden
scholar
made. (1.1.35)

The grave
doth
gape,
and doting
death
is near. (2.1.32)

Let floods
o’erswell, and fiends
for
food
howl on! (2.1.54)

O Kate!
nice customs
curtsy
to great kings. Dear Kate,
you and I cannot
be confinedwithin
the weak list of
a country’s
fashion:
we are the makers
of manners,
Kate.
(5.2.144)

Anaphora: Repetition of words at the
beginning of phrases, clauses, or sentences

Hear him
but reason in divinity,And,
all-admiring, with an inward wishYou would
desire the king were made a prelate:Hear him
debate of commonwealth affairs,You would
say it hath been all in all his study.
(1.1.42-45)

His hours fill’d up with riots,
banquets, sports;And
never noted in him any
study,Any
retirement, any
sequestrationFrom
open haunts and popularity. (1.1.60-63)

What shall I say to thee, Lord
Scroop? thou cruel,Ingrateful,
savage and inhuman creature!Thou that
didst bear the key of all my counsels,That
knew’st the very bottom of my soul,That
almost mightst have coin’d me into goldWouldst thou have
practis’d on me for thy use! (2.2.98-103)

Take pity of your town and
of your people,
Whiles yet my soldiers are
in my command; Whiles yet the cool and
temperate wind of grace
O’erblows the filthy and contagious clouds.
(3.30.30-33)

Apostrophe:
Addressing an abstraction or a thing, present or absent;
addressing an absent entity or person; addressing a
deceased person

O
England! model to thy inward greatness,
Like
little body with a mighty heart, What
mightst thou do, that honour would thee
do, Were
all thy children kind and natural! (2.Prologue.17-20)(England
is addressed.)

Assonance:
Repetition of vowel sounds preceded and followed by
different consonant sounds

The
breath no sooner left his father’s body
(1.1.28)And
pretty traps to catch the petty
thieves. (1.2.182)

Hyperbole:
A gross exaggeration

Therefore in
fierce tempest is he [Henry]
coming, In thunder
and in earthquake like a Jove. (2.4.108-109).

Irony,
Dramatic: Situation in which the audience
or reader is aware of information or a
development that a character (or several
characters) is unaware of.
For example, in the second scene of Act 2, the
three traitors—Scroop,
Cambridge, and Grey—meet
with Henry unaware of what the
audience knows: that Henry is
about to order their execution
for treason. Another example
begins at line 40 of the first
scene of Act 4, when Henry
visits his troops at nightfall.
When he converses with them,
they are unaware that they are
speaking with the King.

Metaphor:
Comparison of unlike things without using like,
as, or than

Take heed how you . . .. . .
awake the sleeping sword of war. (1.2.26-27)(Comparison
of a sword to a sleeping creature)
For once the eagle England being in prey,To her
unguarded nest the weasel Scot Comes
sneaking and so sucks her princely eggs.
(1.2.174-176)(Comparison
of England to an eagle and Scotland to a
weasel)

There’s
not,
I
think,
a subjectThat sits
in heart-grief and uneasinessUnder the
sweet shade of your government. (2.2.29-31)(Comparison
of Henry's government to sweet shade for
the people)

Take mercyOn the
poor souls for whom this hungry warOpens his
vasty jaws. (2.4.111-113)(Comparison
of war to a hungry monster)

Oxymoron:
Use of words opposite in meaning side by side

most
truly falsely (5.2.124)

Simile: Comparison of unlike things while
using like, as, or than

Consideration like an angel came,And
whipp’d the offending Adam out of him.
(1.1.28-32)(Comparison
of consideration, or sober-mindedness, to
an angel)
Impious war,Array’d
in flames like to the prince of fiends.
(3.3.17-18)(Comparison
of the appearance of war to the appearance
of the devil)
O!
for
honour
of
our land, Let us
not hang like roping iciclesUpon our
houses’ thatch. (3.5.24-26)(The
Constable of France compares himself and
other Frenchmen to icicles)

They will eat like
wolves and fight like devils. (3.7.74)(The English are compared to wolves and
devils.)

Study Questions and Essay Topics

Which
character in the play do you most admire ?
Which character do you least admire?

Write an
informative essay analyzing Henry V's
ability as a military leader.

In an
essay, compare and contrast the Henry of
this play with the Henry of Henry
IV Part I.

Is Henry
primarily interested in achieving glory for
himself? Or is he sincerely and selflessly
devoted to the English cause?

Write an
informative essay analyzing the strategies
used by the English and French in the
real-life Battle of Agincourt.